With his music being featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds, Billboard’s Spotify Viral 50, and Apple Music’s global Today’s Chill playlist, Instupendo (Aidan Peterson) is an up-and-coming and talented producer making a name for himself at the age of 18.
Premiering a visual for his sophomore EP Faces I know on Majestic Casual, the video is beautifully shot and evokes a deep inner feeling of nostalgia, tranquility, and a sense of cherishment for life.
Setting Mind interviews Instupendo to discuss the visual for his EP Faces I Know.
Setting Mind: Can you give a quick introduction for those who don’t know who you are?
Instupendo: I’m an 18 year-old indie artist-producer from the suburbs of Philadelphia. Other than music, my interests include hanging out with friends, fashion, and graphic novels. I also like to dance and drink way too much coffee.
How did you get your start as a producer and DJ?
My big sister introduced me to me Skrillex when I was 12 and I immediately wanted to make music on my computer. I started experimenting in FL Studio, uploading stuff on SoundCloud, and people eventually started liking it. My first real DJ performance was when I was 15 in March 2016 at a house party in Austin, Texas during SXSW with my friends from the Palettes collective. That led to other opportunities. Until recently, they were mostly in New York City and Brooklyn which is only a few hours away.
How would you describe your music style?
I usually try to avoid classifying my sound because it’s always changing, but I guess if I had to explain it to someone it’d be something along the lines of “electronic melancholy-nostalgia music”.
What is your creative process of producing music like?
I’m a very mood based composer/writer. I like to wake up early(ish) in the morning to go out to a cafe and grab some coffee before sitting down to start producing. I’ve gotta be in the right mind-frame to write anything worthwhile, so I like to surround my desk with coffee table books and fashion editorials to occasionally look over in the middle of writing a song. I just enjoy the pretty pictures. I recently bought a cactus that I named Igor which sits on the windowsill next to my desk. He’s chilling.
Can you talk a bit about your collaboration with ALTABREA on your visual EP Faces I Know and why you decided to create a visual in the first place?
I first met Alice Agrusa and James Rönkkö of ALTABREA about 18 months ago when James reached out about doing a short around one of my tracks as a personal project. That never ended up happening, but I’d really loved his reel, so when it came time to do a video for ‘Homme feat. Benny Sings’ from my first EP, I immediately thought of him, asked, and he and Alice were down to do it. They were so lovely to work with… they scripted and shot the whole thing. It was a great experience.
This spring, I needed to seriously “up” the projection visuals for my biggest live performance to date, so I reached out to see if they had any ideas, thinking they could point me to a VJ or something. Instead, they offered to help. They’d never done a live projection before, but were excited to try. They proposed an idea that went beyond the standard looping visual approach that could be turned into a short film afterwards. I was stoked because I’d totally wanted to do a larger visual experience for the EP. For me, the songs had these distinct personalities that were begging to be visualized, but I just didn’t think it would be possible. So it ended up being a complete win win situation.
The performance visuals were amazing, but it became clear that more footage was needed to create a full visual EP, so Alice wrote up a treatment and took it from there. What you see is entirely her and James’ vision. It’s an amazing piece of art that totally captures the “essence” of the audio EP.
How did your visual EP come about on being premiered on Majestic Casual?
They featured some of my songs in my past, so when the idea for the visual EP first came up, we sent them the early edits and they were immediately interested.
How has publishing your work on Majestic Casual affected your career?
Majestic Casual has a pretty major reach which has helped get my music to a lot of new ears. I’m infinitely appreciative for that. I think my sound is a natural fit for what they’ve got going. They’re always looking to expand the listening experience, so there are lots of new opportunities to explore.
Who and what are your biggest inspirations in life?
I’m a big fan of graphic novels and just visual literature in general. My biggest non-musical inspiration is probably Taiyō Matsumoto, the author of the series ‘Sunny’. My other inspirations are just typical life enjoyment stuff: driving around aimlessly, people-watching, journaling, hanging out with my friends, etc.
What are you planning for the future?
My plans are currently a bit nebulous. There are still a couple of new elements of the ‘Faces I Know’ project coming in the next month or so. Otherwise, I’m working on a lot of new material that is pretty evolutionary compared to my previous projects. Definitely more personal. I’m also co-writing with friends from all over, which is always a lotta fun.
Any last words for your fans?
Install mood lighting in your bedroom and dance around. It saved me.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Check out more of Instupendo’s music on SoundCloud.
